SSA Global to invest $4 mn in India

SSA Global Technologies Inc, a provider of extended enterprise solutions and services, will be investing $ 4 million in India this year. The company plans to double its size in India from around 400 employees in the next three years.

The company's R&D centre was established in Hyderabad in 1995. Addressing mediapersons, Michael E Greenough, chairman, chief executive officer and president of SSA Global, said, "At present, around 40 per cent of our development work is done out of this centre. Within the next two-three years, 50 per cent of our development capacity will be based out of India."

The company invested $10 million in India last year and this year it is looking at an additional investment of $ 4 million in "salaries and premises."

Besides organic growth, the $800 million company is looking at acquisitions as well. "Around 34 companies are on our radar for acquisition purposes and some of them are based in India as well," Greenough said.

SSA had recently announced the acquisition of customer relationship management (CRM) company Epiphany and Boniva Software, a provider of human capital management applications. Boniva has operations in Hyderabad as well. The Epiphany deal had a value of $329 million.

According to Graeme Cooksley, executive vice-president, global sales and marketing, SSA Global, "There is a huge opportunity to grow our business in India." The company has around 260 customers in India and is looking at doubling its size in the Indian market.

At present, the Asia-Pacific region contributes to 15 per cent of the company's revenues. "There is a large opportunity for partnerships and affiliations in India as well," Cooksley said, adding that they have been approached by a number of partners in India to grow on a global scale.

The company also announced that it achieved the Level 5 rating in the Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI), a process improvement approach by the Software Engineering Institute.

CMMI is the standard for assessing an organisation's ability to perform. The company is now concentrating on consolidating its work at eight centres across the world in the next two-three years.